The process for reloading cartridges is most frequently practiced by hobbyists who wish to tailor-make their ammunition, or the frequent shooter who wants to save money by reloading his own cartridges. The reloading equipment (e.g. for reloading rifle cartridges) includes a press that is typically adapted to be mounted to a workbench. The press includes a die holder, a cartridge case holder, and mechanism for producing relative movement of the die holder and cartridge case holder toward and away from each other.
When a round of ammunition is fired the cartridge case may be enlarged, and prior to reloading it needs to be properly resized. For this purposes a resizing die is mounted in the reloading press and the cartridge case is pressed axially into the internal bore of the resizing die to compress and reform the sides of the cartridge case into the appropriate cross-sectional configuration. Often this resizing operation also will include the use of an elongate rod which extends axially through the resizing die and has a pin at its lower end to push a spent primer from the primer pocket in the head of the cartridge case.
In the past during such resizing operations, as the cartridge case is resized, by being pressed inwardly, it has had a tendency to elongate, or grow, such that eventually trimming of the cartridge case length is required. Further, additional steps usually are required to cut a chamfer on the inner mouth, or rim, portion of the neck of the cartridge case to aid in reception of a bullet.